Jessica Backhaus
Artist Biography
Jessica Backhaus was born in Cuxhaven, Germany in 1970 and grew up in her family of artists. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Paris, where she later studied Photography and Visual Communications from 1989-1993. There she met Gisèle Freund in 1992, who became her mentor. In 1995, her passion for photography drew her to New York. She lived there until 2009, was influenced by encounters with influential art photographers and pursued her own artistic projects.
Jessica Backhaus is considered as one of the most distinguished voices of contemporary photography from Germany. Her work has been shown internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; the Centre de la Photographie, Mougins; the Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin and the MARTa Herford, Herford. The Kunsthalle in Erfurt dedicated a major museum exhibition to Jessica Backhaus in 2013.
Her works are in many prominent Art collections; including the Taunus Sparkasse Art Collection, Bad Homburg; the Deutsche Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt; the Arendt Art Collection, Luxembourg; the Margulies Collection, Miami; the Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Frankfurt; the ING Art Collection, Brussels and the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
To date, she has eleven monographs to her name: Jesus and the Cherries, 2005; What Still Remains, 2008; One Day in November, 2008; I wanted to see the world, 2010; Once, still and forever, 2012; Six degrees of freedom, 2015; A TRILOGY, 2017; Far away but close, 2019; Cut Outs, 2021; Plein Soleil, 2024 and Indications of the Sea, 2024. All published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg except Far away but close, which was published by Another Place Press, Scotland and Indications of the Sea, which was published by dumas.salchli, France. Jessica Backhaus' work is also featured in the following books, among others: Masters of Light. Great Women Photographers from Two Centuries by Boris Friedewald (Prestel Verlag, 2014 and 2018) and Art? Yes, Art! The Desire of Images by Jean-Christophe Ammann (Westend Verlag 2014).
Jessica Backhaus is represented by the following galleries: Robert Morat Galerie in Berlin, Galerie Anja Knoess in Cologne, Petra Becker/International Art Bridge in Meggen, Carlos Carvalho Arte Contemporanea in Lisbon, MiCamera in Milan, Wouter van Leeuwen Gallery in Amsterdam, Bridgette Mayer Gallery in Philadelphia and Robert Klein Gallery in Boston.
Since 2009, Jessica Backhaus has lived and worked in Berlin. In 2012, the FOAM Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, produced a short documentary about the artist Wonder Jessica Backhaus, a film by Willem Aerts.
Click on the link below to download Jessica's CV.